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Saturday, 27 September 2014

Breakfast Served Anytime

Breakfast
Served Anytime by Sara Combs
(Walker Books)

HC RRP $ 24.95

ISBN 9780763667917

Reviewed by Anastasia
Gonis

It is school holidays and Gloria
sets out for ‘geek camp’- a camp for gifted students. All electronic equipment
(except phone) is left behind so is best friend Carol, and her beloved grandma
that has just passed on. With her grief, Gloria carries her scant belongings
and a journal and pen, and joins the four student study group ‘Secrets of the
Secret Word.’ All these elements will be instrumental to her metamorphosis.

It is Gloria’s narrative
voice that allows us an intimate view of her feelings and thoughts.

Raised in a privileged
environment by her single dad who has encouraged her to think and decide for
herself, Gloria is open to all cosmic signs which she sees in everything around
her. When she first sets eyes on the blue butterflies, she accepts them as a
sign that camp will produce significant outcomes.

And it does. Valuable
friendships, life lessons, and love reach out to embrace Gloria from unexpected
places. She learns that everybody hides something, and that sharing parts of
yourself can be equally comforting to the giver and the receiver.

The lyrical prose is like
a gift to the reader of something valuable. The warmth and the depth of the
book’s content is obvious from the first to the last page. I felt I was sharing
all of Gloria’s life; a shadowed observer yet part of everything she did and
felt.